Post by scottrader on Apr 22, 2010 13:03:34 GMT -5
Some of you may remember me from this thread:
huntingindiana.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=deerhunting&thread=27237&page=1#215856
After five years of not being able to turkey hunt everything came together for me to be able to go this year. I had been going out every morning and sitting on my deck for about the last month and have just listened to birds hammering every morning on our farm. Knowing the farm as well as I do had a pretty good idea where they were roosted. My friends came out and scouted a few times and they pretty much confirmed what I had thought. They observed two different groups roosting together. One group was 2 mature toms, and the other group was a group of 6 jakes along with 2 other mature toms. One of my friends came out and roosted them on Tuesday night. He also marked the spot in the field where we were going to set up on Wednesday morning. When they had scouted these birds from afar they had a pretty good idea where they were going to strut at every day in this field so we knew where we were going to set the blind.
At first light both groups of birds were hammering on the roost. After they flew down they continued to gobble pretty consistently for about an hour. They were responding to her calls, but they were not cutting the distance to us at all. Somewhere around 8:30 they went quiet. We would hear the occasional gobble over the next couple of hours. We were kind of set up at the end of a finger of timber in the field. At about 9:30 one of my friends spotted a lone jake was coming up the edge of the finger by himself. Then about 10 minutes later 3 more jakes came up the same tree line. None of them responded to our calls. They could see our blind but not our decoy set. They ended up cutting across this deep finger. About 45 minutes later my other friend looked up and said 4 jakes are coming and to get ready. They all came in together a few of them in about 3/4 strut. I ended up shooting the one that gave me the best shot opportunity. This was the first jake that I have ever shot (because I set the bar pretty high with my first turkey), but given the circumstances I decided that the first legal bird that presented me with a shot I was going to take. He ended up weighing 16 lbs. It was all captured on my friends new HD Canon camera that they record all of their hunts on. I should have DVDs once turkey season is over. If I end up uploading the video I will post a link.
None of this would've been possible without great support from family (my wife, my son, my parents, and my in laws) and friends (Jesse Fulwider and Mike Marsteller who assisted me) along with the shooting apparatus that my parents purchased for me from the company Be Adaptive in Columbia City, Indiana. I also need to think Brian Judy of Midwest Outdoor Equipment in Greencastle, Indiana for letting us use the Bad Boy Buggy. It let us get in there close without making any noise.
I can't tell you my excitement and how thrilling it was to be back out there getting after it.
To be continued... this fall.
huntingindiana.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=deerhunting&thread=27237&page=1#215856
After five years of not being able to turkey hunt everything came together for me to be able to go this year. I had been going out every morning and sitting on my deck for about the last month and have just listened to birds hammering every morning on our farm. Knowing the farm as well as I do had a pretty good idea where they were roosted. My friends came out and scouted a few times and they pretty much confirmed what I had thought. They observed two different groups roosting together. One group was 2 mature toms, and the other group was a group of 6 jakes along with 2 other mature toms. One of my friends came out and roosted them on Tuesday night. He also marked the spot in the field where we were going to set up on Wednesday morning. When they had scouted these birds from afar they had a pretty good idea where they were going to strut at every day in this field so we knew where we were going to set the blind.
At first light both groups of birds were hammering on the roost. After they flew down they continued to gobble pretty consistently for about an hour. They were responding to her calls, but they were not cutting the distance to us at all. Somewhere around 8:30 they went quiet. We would hear the occasional gobble over the next couple of hours. We were kind of set up at the end of a finger of timber in the field. At about 9:30 one of my friends spotted a lone jake was coming up the edge of the finger by himself. Then about 10 minutes later 3 more jakes came up the same tree line. None of them responded to our calls. They could see our blind but not our decoy set. They ended up cutting across this deep finger. About 45 minutes later my other friend looked up and said 4 jakes are coming and to get ready. They all came in together a few of them in about 3/4 strut. I ended up shooting the one that gave me the best shot opportunity. This was the first jake that I have ever shot (because I set the bar pretty high with my first turkey), but given the circumstances I decided that the first legal bird that presented me with a shot I was going to take. He ended up weighing 16 lbs. It was all captured on my friends new HD Canon camera that they record all of their hunts on. I should have DVDs once turkey season is over. If I end up uploading the video I will post a link.
None of this would've been possible without great support from family (my wife, my son, my parents, and my in laws) and friends (Jesse Fulwider and Mike Marsteller who assisted me) along with the shooting apparatus that my parents purchased for me from the company Be Adaptive in Columbia City, Indiana. I also need to think Brian Judy of Midwest Outdoor Equipment in Greencastle, Indiana for letting us use the Bad Boy Buggy. It let us get in there close without making any noise.
I can't tell you my excitement and how thrilling it was to be back out there getting after it.
To be continued... this fall.
